Study Says York County Needs New Golf Courses

YORK — An Atlanta-based consulting firm says York County should be able to attract enough golfers to pay for a public course at New Quarter Park near Williamsburg.

Golf Resource Associates found that the area has enough expensive private golf facilities, but too few municipal courses.

"There is limited public golf accessibility for residents or tourists who have neither the financial wherewithal nor the desire to participate in the game at the area's resort facilities," according to the study released last week.

Local resorts charge between $50 and $75 for one golfer to play 18 holes, while public courses in Newport News and Hampton charge about $10. The public courses are crowded.

The study found a need for up to four new 18-hole public golf courses.

The county now is trying to determine the cost of building a golf course in New Quarter Park and whether the greens fees would pay for construction, operations and maintenance, and road improvements, County Administrator Daniel Stuck said.

The county should not build a golf course unless it is self-supporting, Stuck added.

First Golf Corp., a Denver subsidiary of First Municipal Leasing that has built 65 courses around the nation, wants to build the course and lease it to the county. The company paid $4,000 of the $6,000 cost of the consultant's study but will recoup its money if the county decides to build a course but awards the construction contract to a different company.

First Golf estimated a course could be built in New Quarter Park for $2 million to $3 million, Stuck said.

"There is a lot of variation in what you can spend to build a golf course," he said. Courses designed by golfing great Jack Nicklaus can cost $12 million, he added.

The county has asked the National Park Service whether it will approve an entrance to New Quarter Park from the Colonial Parkway to avoid traffic problems that might occur in the Queens Lake subdivision if a golf course is built, Stuck said.

David Moffitt, superintendent of the Colonial park, has said park planners are considering the request and may even recommend giving York the approximately 600-acre "Cheatham Wilderness," which is next to New Quarter Park.

New Quarter Park is a 545-acre playground given to York County in 1976 by the federal government, which had declared the land surplus.

A golf course would not interfere with current activities at the park, which include group picnics, campfires and volleyball, said Robert Kraus, York director of general services.

The county considered building a golf course in the park in 1980 but abandoned the idea as too costly.